President Obama's Weekly Address

In his weekly address today, President Obama makes his case on the proposed budget. He explains that he does not see this budget as

...numbers on a page or a laundry list of programs. It’s an economic blueprint for our future – a vision of America where growth is not based on real estate bubbles or overleveraged banks, but on a firm foundation of investments in energy, education, and health care that will lead to a real and lasting prosperity.

These investments are not a wish list of priorities that I picked out of thin air – they are a central part of a comprehensive strategy to grow this economy by attacking the very problems that have dragged it down for too long: the high cost of health care and our dependence on foreign oil; our education deficit and our fiscal deficit.

This video is an important step for the President, who many feel has struggled so far to make a compelling case for his budget. It is also just one of several ways the President is using new media to push his agenda; here's an excerpt from an email I got last week from Organizing for America:

The next few weeks will be some of the most important our movement for change has encountered yet.

Mitch wrote to you earlier this week about Organizing for America's Pledge Project -- an effort to identify and mobilize support across the country for the economic vision President Obama has outlined in his budget.

If you haven't yet done so, pledge your support now and ask your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same.

I'm not sure that the President's language is 100% there yet on the budget (and clean coal still?), but he makes a clear, cogent argument for it in this video. It's also clear that he understands the challenge ahead of him in getting this passed, and it'll be interesting to see how he ramps up the fight. Watch the video of this week's address below: